:::: SABIC POLYMER RESEARCH CENTER

Introduction:
The chemical engineering department was established in 1394 H (1974 G) in the college of engineering at King Saud University. The department offers the degree of Master of Science in chemical engineering since 1401/1402 H (1981 G) and Ph.D. degree since 1422 H (2001 G). The department always invests time and all available resources to improve and adjust the graduate programs to support the industrial development in the Kingdom.

Polymer industries are considered as the most important element in the industrial development specially in Saudi Arabia petrochemical industry. Recently there are great demand for polymers in the plastic industry and in the other industrial applications such as food packaging and digital circuit. This kind of expansion will require great numbers of scientist, engineers and technicians specialized in polymer engineering. Development of polymer science and engineering is led by the largest petrochemical company in the region, SABIC, to fund and establish a chair position in King Saud University specialized in polymer science and engineering. The department of chemical engineering has several faculty members that have worked in polymer engineering and contributed largely in the development of the field through their research labs and patents that participated in the development of polymer industry in the Kingdom.

Therefore, the chemical engineering department at King Saud University will play important role in this kind of industrial development by offering a master program in Polymer Engineering.

Degree Name: Master of Science in Polymer Engineering
Program Objectives:
The objectives of the program can be summarized as follows:
1. Qualify Saudi engineers to advance and meet the work requirements of the polymers industrial sector.
2. Encourage the scientific research in the field of polymers and its applications.
3. Co-operate with polymer industry to improve manufacturing practice.

Admission Requirements:
1) The admission requirements enumerated in the 15th article of the unified law organizing the graduate studies in       Saudi universities.
2) Bachelor of science in chemical engineering. Other Bachelors of Science holders can be accepted as well.

Degree Requirements:
A. Successful completion of a 24 credit hours of graduate courses distributed as follows:
            1. 15 credit hours from core courses.
            2. 9 credit hours from elective courses.
B. Completion and successful defense of a master thesis. The student is allowed to register the thesis after completion      of 12 credit hours.

Programs Track: Not Applicable
Programs Structure:
24 Credit hours and a thesis are required:

Number & Type of Courses	Credit Hours
5 Core Courses	15
5 Elective Courses	9
Thesis	-
Total	24

COURSES

1. Core Courses:

CHE 502 Advanced Chemical Reaction Engineering                                  3(3+0)

Internal and external resistances in catalyst particles. Fixed bed reactor under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. Fluidized bed reactor under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. Multiphase reactors. Polymerization reactors, multiplicity of steady state.

CHE 511 Advanced Topics in Transport Phenomena                                  3(3+0)

Transport in laminar flow, transport in turbulent flow, transport between two phases, transport by radiation, transport in large flow systems.

CHE 561 Fundamentals of Polymer Engineering                                   3(3+0)

Physical and mathematical principles required to understand and solve engineering problems encountered with polymeric materials. Fundamentals of polymerization and polymer synthesis. Details of polymerization mechanisms, structure-property relationships, fundamentals of processing, and characterization of high polymers. Overview of different polymers processing techniques commonly used in the Kingdom.

CHE 562 Polymer Reaction Engineering                                   3(3+0)

Engineering principles applied to the analysis and design of polymerization processes. Mathematical modeling of polymerization kinetics, ideal polymerization reactors, heat and mass transfer, reactor dynamics and optimization, mixing effects. Case studies of important industrial processes.

CHE 563 Polymer Properties and Rheology                                  3(3+0)

Overview of polymer chemical composition, microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties, rheology, and principles of polymer materials selection. Description of the physical, thermal, mechanical, and rheological properties of polymeric materials relevant to their processing behavior. Techniques for predicting the engineering and physical properties of polymers from their molecular structures. Definition and measurement of the material functions of complex fluids, continuum mechanics of stress and deformation, constitutive equations derived from both continuum and molecular theories.

CHE 564 Polymer Processing                                   3(3+0)

Review of the basic transport phenomena equations: mass, momentum, and energy. Analysis of various processing operations for the manufacture of polymeric articles, with particular emphasis on: extrusion, injection molding, blow molding, thermoforming, compression molding, and stretch blow. Discussion of plastics recycling issues. Effects of additives on polymer processing.

CHE 565 Polymer Characterization and Synthesis Laboratory                                   3(3+0)

Characterization of polymers , including spectroscopic (Raman, infrared), mechanical (tensile, dynamic mechanical, rheological), microscopic (electron microscopy), physiochemical (intrinsic viscosity, differential scanning, calorimetry, gel permeation chromatography) and scattering (light, x-rays). Preparation of the most important types of polymer types. Radical, cationic, anionic polymerization, copolymerization, Ziegler-Natta polymerization, step growth polymerization; suspension and emulsion polymerization; group transfer polymerization; metathesis polymerization. Lectures provide state-of-the-art description of these and additional polymer characterization and synthesis methods.

CHE 566 Polymers Degradation                                   3(3+0)

Thermal, chemical and photo stability of polymers, swelling & dissolution. Chain scission and bond rupture by oxygen, ozone, and other substances. Thermal degradation at elevated temperature. Radiation damage caused by, electron beams, x-rays, UV, etc.weathering of polymers on exposure to outdoor conditions. Polymers degradation prevention & control.

CHE 567 Micromechanics                                   3(3+0)

Effects of microstructure on the mechanics of polymeric media: deformation modes, yield, rubber toughening, alloys and blends, fatigue and fracture of highly filled systems. Effect of fillers and strengthening additives on Micromechanics of Polymers.

CHE 568 Polymer Surfaces and Adsorption                                   3(3+0)

Discussion of theoretical and experimental methods providing insight into polymer interfacial phenomena. Theoretical: surface dynamics, Gibbs isotherm, gradient-squares. Experimental: infra-red rays, spectroscopic methods and contact angles etc.

CHE 569 Advanced Topics in Polymer Engineering                                   3(3+0)

The advanced subjects in polymer engineering related to the current needs.

CHE 570 Modeling and Simulation in Polymer Synthesis and Processing                             3(3+0)

Modeling techniques used in commercial software in the polymer synthesis and processing industry, developing simulation tools for specialized polymer applications. Different numerical methods to simulate flow, heat transfer and structural development in polymer synthesis and processing operations.

CHE 571 Non Newtonian Flow and Heat Transfer in Polymers                             3(3+0)

Introduction to non-Newtonian behavior in polymers, laminar flow for polymers, laminar heat transfer in polymers, turbulent heat transfer in polymers, mixing and heat transfer, heat transfer in polymer processing, viscoelastic fluids

Math 506 Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations                             3(3+0)

Initial and boundary values problems for ordinary differential equations. Numerical solutions, elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic partial differential equations. Initial and boundary problems for second order partial differential equations

CHEM 581 Polymer Solutions                             3(3+0)

Thermodynamic Properties of polymer solutions, e.g. osmotic pressure, vapor pressure, entropy of mixing, internal energy, solubility, swelling pressure etc.., thermodynamics of high elastic and glassy polymer solutions.

Department Faculty Members

(Listed Alphabetically)

Professors:

Abasaeed, E. Ahmed	76856	abasaeed@ksu.edu.sa
Abashar, E. E. Mohamed	75843	mabashar@ksu.edu.sa
Ajbar, M. Abdulhameed	76843	aajbar@ksu.ed.sa
Al-Fariss, F. Tariq	76875	fariss@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Mutaz, S. Ibrahim	76870	almutaz@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Zahrani, M. Saeed	76873	szahrani@ksu.edu.sa
Ali, M. Emad	76871	amkamal@ksu.edu.sa
Asif, Mohamed	76849	masif@ksu.edu.sa
Boumaaza, M. Mourad	79151	mouradb@ksu.edu.sa
Fakeeha, H. Anis	76847	anishf@ksu.edu.sa
Mustafa, M. Hamid	76854	hmohm@ksu.edu.sa
Wagialla, M. Kamil	76846	wagialla@ksu.edu.sa

Associate Professors:

Al-Ahmed, I. Malik	76874	malahmad@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Habdan, M. Fahad	76842	habdan@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Hazzaa, I. Mansour	76845	masai@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Humaizi, l. Khaled (Chair)	76813	humaizi@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Odan, A. Maher	76869	alodan@ksu.edu.sa
Almasry, A. Waheed	76853	walmasry@ksu.edu.sa

Assistant Professors:

Al-Hussaini, A. Abdulmalik	76738	amalik@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Mubaddel, S. Fahad	76848	mubaddel@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Mutlag, M. Abdul Aziz	76738	ammutlag@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Nashif, M. Inas	76865	alnashef@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Rabiah, A. Abdulrahman	76844	arabiah@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Sugair, A. Khaled	76857	alsugair@ksu.edu.sa
Al-Sughair, S. Yusuf	76855	yszs@ksu.edu.sa